This invention relates to portable shelters. More particularly, the instant invention relates to a tent-like enclosure which includes an air insulative barrier adapted for thermally insulating the apparatus.
In the prior art a variety of collapsible shelters are known. Many of these shelters include one or more walls which may be selectively deployed in order to erect a small enclosure where desired by a fisherman or outdoorsman, for example. Most prior art collapsible enclosures or tent structures include a support frame which may be folded or selectively manipulated to form the desired supportive frame structure and an outer sheath such as tarpaulin or the like to provide an insulative layer. One example of a prior art shelter enclosure will be seen in my U.S. Pat. No. 3,971,395, issued July 27, 1976.
Prior art portable, and collapsible enclosures are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,804,083, issued to A. Wieber on Aug. 27, 1957; U.S. Pat. No. 2,301,089, issued Nov. 3, 1942 to R. Stevens; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,175,857, issued to R. Lewis on Mar. 30, 1965. Examples of enclosures adapted to be used for ice fishing include U.S. Pat. No. 2,473,076, issued to C. Scheibner on June 14, 1949; U.S. Pat. No. 2,891,562, issued to A. Kruczynski on June 23, 1959; U.S. Pat. No. 3,352,313, issued to M. Kroening on Nov. 14, 1976; U.S. Pat. No. 2,546,730, issued to F. Dickerson on Mar. 27, 1951; U.S. Pat. No. 2,546,588, issued to J. Ellis on Mar. 27, 1951; U.S. Pat. No. 2,632,454, issued Mar. 24, 1953 to C. Skogen; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,157,185, issued Nov. 17, 1964 to J. Schoenike. A collapsible study enclosure structure is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,538,976, issued to C. Gilbert et al. A method of fabricating a solar still is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,006,818, issued Oct. 31, 1961 to R. Lappala et al.
It is believed that the following references are perhaps the most pertinent to the instant invention: U.S. Pat. No. 3,244,186, issued Apr. 5, 1966 to T. Thomason et al. for a solar heated tent; U.S. Pat. No. 3,052,249, issued to S. Seaman et al. Sep. 4, 1962 for a collapsible tent structure; U.S. Pat. No. 2,918,023, issued Dec. 22, 1959 to B. Bettcher for a thermal insulating light-admitting device; and U.S. Pat. No. 2,996,729, issued Aug. 22, 1961 to I. Bailey for a swimming pool which includes a plurality of roof layers for defining thermally insulative air pockets.
No known prior art however, solves the problem of providing an enclosure which may be moved about very easily by the operator, and which also is well adapted to solar heating so as to be easily adjusted between solar heat receiving configuration and heat retaining configuration.